The family vacation for the summer is booked and two weeks full of nature, sea breeze, sea noise and beach days are waiting. After all, nothing can go wrong – or do you need travel insurance? The experts at Stiftung Warentest only consider insurance necessary when traveling abroad and advise against the offers of the booking portals. An overview:
For all trips outside of Germany, the Stiftung Warentest recommends foreign travel health insurance. Why? Insured persons abroad cannot rely on statutory health insurance. Because: Within the European Union, the health insurance company only covers what the insured person is entitled to in the travel country. Means: If a treatment there is a private service, the health insurance company does not bear the costs for it abroad – even if this treatment is covered by health insurance in Germany.
Outside the European Union, the protection of statutory health insurance is even more limited, according to Stiftung Warentest. Without travel health insurance abroad, it can quickly become very expensive: For example, if a family member is injured so badly on vacation that medical transport is necessary, this can cost over 100,000 euros. The product testers therefore recommend that when taking out insurance, you make sure that “medically sensible” return transport is paid for. Meaningful means, for example, if the injured person could recover more quickly in Germany. For families (with underage children) there are tariffs for less than 50 euros per year. The test winner is the “green insured ARN, family” tariff from Vigo for an annual fee of EUR 46.80. An annual tariff is usually the most sensible. The price tip from Stiftung Warentest for families is tariff “502” from the Munich association. It costs 18.60 euros a year and has received a grade of 1.1.
The children are lying flat with a gastrointestinal crib or the family dog is injured – unfortunately something can always come up that thwarts the travel plans. A travel cancellation insurance covers the cancellation costs if the reason for the cancellation of the trip is insured there. Insured reasons usually include unexpected illnesses, pregnancy complications or accidents.
Stiftung Warentest always recommends travel cancellation insurance in combination with cancellation insurance. This covers costs if the holiday has to be interrupted, canceled or extended for insured reasons. But when is such protection necessary? In principle, such insurance can make sense if the holiday is very expensive and if several people are traveling with you. The more likely it is that something will thwart your vacation plans, the more sense insurance makes. The test winner at Stiftung Warentest is the “Annual Travel Card Basic Package without self-service” tariff from Travelsecure. It was rated “very good” and costs 117 euros a year.
Many providers advertise with apparently sensible insurance policies that are supposed to make a trip safe. But Stiftung Warentest classifies baggage insurance, travel accident insurance and travel liability insurance as unnecessary.
It’s just a click away and it’s child’s play to add a travel insurance package to booking portals. But: The product testers advise against the click. The offers are usually a bad deal because they include unnecessary insurance – and the quality differences can be very high. Better: book the trip and separately look for and take out international health insurance and, if necessary, travel cancellation insurance with the best rate.
You can find the complete (chargeable) test at Stiftung Warentest
